Videos

Scotland's Downwards Towpath Challenge race was held over the weekend, in Fort William, North. Greg Minaar took the win from some other cyclists. Matti's headcammed run above is about the best example of bike abuse I've seen in quite some time, and he's taking it fairly easy after coming back from breaking his back early last season.

Then he crashed. Poor bastard.

They've put more VHS cassettes up the Internet on Freecaster.

The new Collective film Seasons is being premiered all over the place in the next few weeks. Whistler today, London soon.

I'm loving the choice of a 100% Vivaldi soundtrack, too. That's inspired, and a wonderful ATBing homage to one of the great composers.

The clip above is a mashup from Kpeek (apparently named after a Doctor Who alien, the poor lad), and is rather good, although the thought of Darren Berrecloth and his other 299 chums freeriding in just their pants isn't a great image.

The real trailer, that you saw ages ago, plus all the premier dates, are here:

Seasons.

At the end of the summer, most of the guides from Ticket2RideBC quit to get some riding in and we went on a road trip. Whistler resident, Spike, joined us and we were graced with a couple of cameo appearances from North Van local and forum populist, JCL.

We'd flukily picked the perfect week for weather, dry, sunny but not too hot. A week like there hadn't been all summer long - and we made the most of it.

Check this classy little promo vid for Kevin Landry, aka Freeride Kev (yes, really). The guy rips. Some of you might have met him in Whistler with Ticket2Ride. There's some pretty slick riding off some big stuff in Pemberton, all cut together nicely by Taylor Loughran. It ticks the following freeride boxes, and possibly more:

• Filmed in BC
• Going big, not home
• Riding in the mountain
• Wifebeater (red)
• Lumberjack Shirt
• Freeride speed lean AND manual
• Lazily cool backing track, understating the sheer awesomeness of it all

Tis the season of Epic.

Johnny Smoke once again delivered the good stuff in the form of two classic rides out in the Okanagan.

Vehicular conspiracies and intermittent rain tried to keep us off the trails, but the will was good and the gods were kind.

Crankworx is turning over new chapters in mountainbiking. Check this clip out of the mayhem in the Dual Slalom comp. The timing went baps-up so all the riders took to the track in a 50x rampage down the course. Spot Mosely, Minaar and Happy Chappy Brian Lopes in the melee. Not sure who won, but it was highly entertaining.

Here's a quick edit from a day spent in the Whistler Boneyard filming riders from Womansworx (bad name, good skills though) and various Slopelords practicing for the slopelord event this weekend. The Lacondeguy Machine took a huge crash - overshooting a backflip landing by a good 15 feet. Dead for sure. But no. He suggested to our very own Mr. Chopper that perhaps brake checking a little after the Giro Trailer was in order.

The stack is at about 2m10s if you can't wait.

I missed Rennie, Minaar and Hill training the 4X course at about 1000mph. Mental to see. Everywhere you look something's going off. Not a bad week to be off the bike really, as the queues are immense anyway.

Golly. I need a nice cup of tea and a sit down.

Turning over a new chapter in biking - check these mad skills from newcomers to the scene Keith Flint and Dave Lee-Travis, stolen from the New World Disorder XI video - Grand Theft Insanity Freeride Conquest.

A couple of vids showed up on the forum recently, posted by Roo of Flowtography fame. Definitely some tidy skills on some local trails. Here they are again if you missed them:

Local trails headcam (100mb WMV).

Wisley set headcam (10mb WMV).

The Collective III is on it's way, and sounds like it should be another piece of craftsmanship.

See the MBUK article for more info on the setup and some short behind the scenes clips of Peaty on his home turf (and rocks).

A short and soulful clip from a day's riding in sunny Kent (or maybe not Kent), lobbed together using the rather swish Jumpcut.com online video masher.

Whitish Stu's been busy cutting together another couple of clips from Whistler.

Top To Bottom (90mb DivX AVI)

All the way from the top of the Garbanzo chair - down No Joke via bits of Freight Train, then into A-Line. If that doesn't get you super stoked, it's also about 17 minutes of Greasemonkey's arse, then mine for the finale.

A_line_closed.avi (30mb DivX AVI)

One of the diversions we took when A-Line was closed. Schleyer > Lower Whistler DH > Heart of Darkness (note: this is a blue graded trail). I feel I should point out that Riz's sections aren't in slow motion - I expect he's riding like that so that you can enjoy the fabulous views.

Here's the video clip from this summer's blitz in BC (@ 70mb DivX AVI), as put together lovingly by Whitish using rocks, sellotape, and despite Windows Movie Maker.

If the first half doesn't make you want to go to Whistler, nothing will.

There's been some fine little video productions posted on the forum lately, including the latest episode of Stund this time showing how much fun Whistler can be if you happen to be able to pull moto-whips as well as Thomas Vanderham and Steve Homogenous. Mad Crankworx action too.

Then there's the NWD7 teaser, which looks frankly ridiculous but will no doubt be drowned after thirty seconds of Roam-style atmospherics by a tirade of musical dross.

More? Try the Nuremburg Redbull District Ride, Crankworx and more on Freercaster.

This beautifually shot short documentary from Channel 4 hits the nail on the head. It juxtaposes clips of South Bank's skaters with swimmers in Hyde Park's Serpentine and unveils a connection.

It got me thinking about bikes, unsurprisingly and it dawned that it's not about how or what you ride, or even that you ride at all; it's just doing something that makes you feel alive.